The invention relates to a cooking grill, and more specifically to improvements to a cooking device which allows food to be grilled on the surface of a stove.
A known device which is suitable for use with the present invention is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,301,172 (which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety). This cooking grill comprises a circular base with a hole in the center, a wire grid supported above the base and spaced therefrom, and a removable cover placed over the wire grid. The device is placed on the surface of a stove with the circular hole placed over the flame of a burner, and food to be cooked is placed on the wire grid.
This known device has a number of disadvantages. Namely, as food is being cooked, grease and fats from the food drip down onto the base. This base rests directly on the surface of the stove, and therefore has a tendency to be heated to a high temperature and is unstable resting on the burners of a gas stove. Thus, the drippings will evaporate from the base, creating excessive smoke and odors, which are undesirable in a device being used indoors.
Furthermore, the device described above is not suitable for use with an electric stove. In order to properly cook the food in this device, convection type heating is required which surrounds the food with cooking heat. However, a cooking element of an electric stove gives off mainly radiant heat, which will not cook the food as evenly or efficiently.